tiki wasteland

Synopsis: The year is 1921 and the village of Ballyvaughan in Western Ireland is engulfed in the Irish War of Independence with the British. When the IRA devises the assassination of two British marines, a 13-year-old girl must save the village from the English retaliation while discovering her own courage and inner strength. Based on a true story.

The That’s Incredible team investigates claims by the Cromarty family that the Amityville “Horror House” (which they bought a year after the Lutzes fled) is not haunted, after all – and that the whole haunting was a fraud. Check out how Mrs Cromarty proves the front door was never broken/repaired with the help of her magic screwdriver

and another:

PlusRaw Video: The Dangers of FireworksRaw Video: The Dangers of FireworksThe Associated PressThe Consumer Product Safety Commission held its annual fireworks safety demonstration in Washington Wednesday, ahead of the Fourth of July celebrations. (June 25)This video contains ONLY natural sound.

Man on tv show in Italy attempts to set himself on fire before stopped by host and crew.

Sky burial or ritual dissection is a practice common in Tibet. A priest cuts the human corpse into small pieces and then places it on top of a mountain, exposing it ritually – especially to birds of prey. Sky burial was also common in some American Indian cultures, and in older Zoroastrian practices.

In one account, the leading rogyapa cut off the limbs and hacked the body into pieces, handing each part to his assistants, who used rocks to pound the flesh and bones together to a pulp, which they mixed with tsampa (barley flour with tea and yak butter or milk) before the vultures were summoned to eat.

In several accounts, the flesh was stripped from the bones and given to vultures without further preparation; the bones then were broken up with sledgehammers, and usually mixed with tsampa before being given to the vultures.

In yet another account, vultures were given the whole body; when only the bones were left, these were broken up with mallets, ground with tsampa, and given to crows and hawks that had waited until the vultures had departed.

Sometimes the internal organs were removed and processed separately, but they too were consumed by birds. The hair is removed from the head and may be simply thrown away; at Drigung it seems at least some hair is kept in a room of the monastery.

Following is an account by a Western China-researcher of a sky burial ritual he personally experienced:

“By that time, the sun was thinking about rising and shades of hazy light revealed three bodies wrapped in white. There were also three or four Tibetans milling around the bodies doing nothing particular or so it seemed.

After about ten or fifteen minutes one of them walked over to where we were all sitting and bathed us in incense. It reminded me of the sage smoke smudge that was wafted over everyone and everything at a Native American ceremony I had attended. The Tibetan spoke to us in simple Chinese to make sure we understood the solemnity of the occasion and the manners. He also reminded us that ‘ pictures were forbidden.’ Two of us were conversant in Chinese and translated this to the others, but I think they all got the message without the translation. We all sat huddled in two groups in close proximity for warmth, perched on the ledge in the chill morning air just as the dawn was breaking. I wondered what mystery had made this profound experience possible and what had drawn us together; three or four couples who had only recently connected in Lhasa.

At one point two of the attendants unwrapped one of the bodies and calmly began to cut it up. At first they sliced of pieced of flesh which they tossed to an area about fifteen or twenty feet from where they were working. A couple of huge vultures were flying high overhead, and a couple of others were perched on some rocks at some distance. Then the men began to wave their arms and made some strange haunting sounds that reminded me of wild animal or bird calls. It probably took about 15-20 minutes for the birds to come – a few dozen. In the meantime the two men charged with the job of disposing of the bodies, continued to cut up the bodies, one at-a-time. The bones were hacked or broken into smaller pieces and tossed aside. The vultures swooped down and tore off pieces of flesh or in some cases flew off with a large chunk which they could eat without being challenged. The bigger bones were broken up on the rocks with large heavy stone, and the pieces tossed easily into the feeding area. Although there seemed to be more than enough for all the birds, by nature they kept vying for the spoils. The whole affair was not harried, but rather a methodical solemn process that must have lasted for a little more than an hour.

When it was over I felt a sense of deep connection to rhythm of life and to the universe as a whole. No one talked much about the experience. I remember reflecting on the fact that these bodies had not suffered the indignity of worms and maggots. In some ways it seemed quite civilized. It was a haunting experience that in many ways is still fresh in my mind. In the past thirteen years I don’t think Ari and I ever talked about that day. We don’t have to. With some reluctance she has helped me recall some of the details, and for that I am grateful. I also am reluctant to talk about it but I have decided to share this experience in the hope that it might be a helpful and useful contribution to the understanding of the Tibetan people and their burial ritual.